Advertisement

Armed forces' first female two-star officer appointed

Elaine West has been appointed as the armed forces' first ever female two-star officer. Credit: RAF/MoD/PA

An RAF officer has been appointed as the armed forces' first ever female two-star officer, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has announced.

Elaine West has been promoted to the rank of Air Vice-Marshal to take up the role of director of Projects and Programme Delivery at the Defence Infrastructure Organisation.

The 51-year-old, who has climbed through the ranks over a 34-year RAF career, will lead the way in programming and delivering multi-million pound infrastructure projects to support military training, improve defence capability and oversee the drawdown of army units from Germany.

Announcing her promotion today, Mr Hammond said it showed there was no "glass ceilings" for female officers.